Jewellery
Linda looked amazing - even better than she had in the photographs Dee had seen. Small dimples showed in her cheeks as she greeted Dee and Lisa with a natural and perfect smile.
"Here you are - I feel like we're old friends already! I've heard so much about you both. You know that I'm Linda and over there with my husband is Jo."
Linda spoke with nonchalant ease, the slightly clipped tones of her accent just distinguishable. Dee didn't miss the careful distinction of Shaka as 'my husband' though. Not that she objected - it seemed entirely appropriate.
It wasn't the first time that Dee found herself in what should have been extraordinary circumstances only to realise that for others her new surroundings were very much the normal way of things.
It couldn't be too often that a women found herself in a room with her man and his wife and two more of his girl-friends. Wasn't that the sort of thing that only happened in cults or crazy communes or the like? Wasn't it something of a danger signal that everyone else seemed to be taking this as the natural state of things?
She recognised the anxiety within herself and considered it. She knew that it was her upbringing coming through - her thirty-plus years of being trained to follow the rules and worship the average, the normal, the predictable. All that she knew was that doing that had left her miserable and unfulfilled. Her life had been trickling away through her fingers before she had met Jessica again and, through her, Shaka. Now she felt active and vibrant and sexy and ... herself again.
So if this was some sort of a crazy situation then she could only thank providence that she had found her way into it. Her teaching brain reminded her that such situations hadn't always been so unusual. The harem, if not always under that name, had been a feature of many cultures over many centuries. Harems always had a queen bee, a favoured wife. She made sure things were arranged properly - that no-one got out of line.
Dee wasn't in any doubt who the queen bee was here as she looked at Linda. Shaka's wife was exquisite. Fine cheek bones, flawless almost translucent skin, a cascade of blonde hair over her shoulders. She had to be forty but could easily pass for ten years younger and her figure was amazing. She probably worked out but her body just seemed naturally slim, save for the curves that emphasized her femininity. Dee wondered if perhaps Linda might have had some help in the bust department. Not that it mattered - if she had done then whoever was responsible had done an amazingly good job. Linda really was the sort of woman you normally only saw on a fashion runway or posing on the red carpet at big events. It was only right that she would be with a man like Shaka.
The whine of machinery came from a curtained booth in the little store. Dee tensed a little - she still wasn't quite sure why Lisa had brought her here. All her friend had said was that Shaka wanted them both to be there. That had been enough.
"I don't think he'll be too long - Izeye is very efficient." Again there was that clipped accent in Linda's speech. "Time you girls met Jo."
Shaka was coming over with the aforementioned and it didn't take a genius to understand she was another of his women. She was white, which was no surprise, but otherwise she was quite a contrast to Linda. She was maybe 25, perhaps 5'3", her hair a mass of naturally red curls. Her face was attractive if a little full, her skin liberally dusted with freckles. Those and the flaming red hair suggested Scots or Irish in her ancestry. Her hazel eyes were lively and intelligent, her mouth open in a smile that you just instinctively knew was her natural way of operating.
Dee liked Jo on first impressions. Well, on second impressions. Something else had first caught her attention. Jo was seriously pregnant. She wore a tight crop top that stretched over her full breasts and left several inches of swollen belly exposed. Her pierced navel carried a stud enamelled with the familiar 'S' motif and just in case someone didn't get the picture her crop top bore the words,
"SHAKA'S BABY
ON BOARD"
The breath caught in Dee's throat. It was so blatant, so brazen ... so beautiful. Jo's body was probably seriously curvy as a rule but just now she looked the embodiment of feminine fertility. People had worshipped that form for millennia, had made crude representations of it from mammoth tusks. For the first time Dee felt that she truly understood why. Jo embodied the future, human destiny. All of that power and potential within her. Shaka's arm was gently placed around her shoulders - protective and proprietorial at the same time.
Dee was well aware that she was staring. She took back control and glanced to her left. It seemed Lisa had no such qualms. She was looking at the couple with a gaze that was as intent as it seemed hungry. Dee wondered if she herself had looked the same a split-second before. Then she saw Linda's knowing blue-grey eyes fixed on her and a small smile crossing the face of Shaka's wife. Dee realised that she had allowed her feelings to show just as obviously as Lisa's still were.
"You ready to go honey?" Linda addressed the question to Jo. "Don't let him run you around too far or too fast. If he has a problem with that just tell him it's his own fault."
Jo giggled, showing a set of small white teeth. She looked down at her top. "I think everyone will soon know that." The excitement was palpable in her voice.
With exquisitely gentle tenderness Shaka laid his big hand on her pregnant belly. "Gonna make me so proud to be showing you off today girl. Letting all them brothas and even some crackas know you one of my women." He leaned down and his lips met those of the redhead. They kissed deeply for a few seconds and then separated again.
"We're all proud of Jo - she has done so well and she looks so beautiful." Linda's smile was totally natural, totally unforced. For perhaps the first time Dee understood that Shaka's wife didn't just passively accept her husband's activities. She was very clearly a partner in them. "Now remember that being pregnant is hard work and that it'll get hot out there. You can show her off for an hour max and then you need to get her back home. Understood?"
Shaka gave a wink in reply. "Not as if it's the first time I've done the like."
"Yes, I remember. You had me parading up and down Key Largo for three hours in a bikini. My back still aches just thinking about it so go easy."
"Well fuck - I was young and foolish then. How many times I done it since and ain't it clear I'm an older, wiser, man."
"Older for sure. Now get out of here," his wife said in mock frustration. "Enjoy yourself Jo and make sure he takes plenty of pics for your fans."
The store door swung shut behind the couple. Linda sent a lingering glance after them and then said, almost to herself. "She's going to love it. I guess it's only fair for pregnancy to have some perks. I felt tired through most of all three of mine and sick as a dog through the first part of two of them. Not all wine and roses - we both know that don't we Dee."
Dee nodded her assent. She certainly did know after three of her own. She didn't regret them but there had been moments back there...
Lisa was watching them both avidly. She, of course, had no children, had never been pregnant. Her husband had preferred seducing his secretaries to starting a family. Finally she spoke for the first time since they had arrived at Izeye's store. "Is that really Shaka's baby?"
Linda laughed a musical laugh. "Oh yes, absolutely. Shaka likes to know for sure. That's why he makes one of his girls exclusive when the time comes. It's also why those with husbands need to make sure there won't be any interference in the natural order of things." Her blue-grey eyes flashed across onto Dee again.
Dee got the message. She still hadn't managed to completely cut off her husband yet. Not that, theoretically at least, that was likely to be a problem. It wasn't as if David had a raging libido. However, every now and then he would suddenly seem to want sex. It was pretty distasteful actually. Only a month ago he had actually tried to make love to her. He'd been floundering around like a fool, thinking that she was just 'playing hard to get.' In the end she'd just let him get on with it - it seemed easier than having him sulking like a petulant brat for weeks. Not that it had taken long or that it had done anything for her. There had been a time when she had thought him an adequate lover. Now she knew so much better.
It was just that if she did what part of her desperately wanted to do then such incidents would be potentially disastrous. It would be just like David to get all excited at the worst possible time. He was so ... inconvenient sometimes.
It was a problem though. How did you tell your husband of fifteen years that he was losing his 'marital rights.' Especially when he was an old-fashioned prick like David. If she suggested anything of the sort he'd probably want to do it more - just because that was 'what was expected'.
She'd even thought about using the children's presence in the house. They were of an age to expect explanations for strange parental activity now and you never knew when one might wander in on them. David would hate that. It would probably work. However, what about when the children were all out and they had the house to themselves?
That, anyway, would be ducking the situation. She knew what was expected of her. A line had to be drawn under that part of her life. David had to be brought to understand that fact. But how?
The sound of the machine had long ceased. Now a curtain was pulled aside and a young woman emerged. She wore a T-shirt and on the inside of one forearm was a gauze dressing.
"Now you understand how to look after it till it heals? You got that leaflet? Wasn't so bad was it?" Dee recognised Izeye as he followed her out.
The girl gave a little laugh. "No, it wasn't so bad. You're pretty quick."
"Should be - I'm getting a lot of practice with those 'ten rules' tattoos. So you planning on living by them?"
The girl pointed to her bandage. "Be a bit late now to decide not to."
Izeye smiled at her. "Just to say that when you're healed I'd like a chance to see how well you following them rules."
The girl checked him out afresh and smiled coquettishly at him. "You'd like that?"
"I'm a man ain't I, got blood in my veins ain't I? You with anyone or you freelancing. Time was that tattoo said a Black man had claimed you. Now not so much - now some real smart girls are getting it as a little piece of a 'come get me', an advertisement to ensure they get plenty of the right sort of action."
